Ukraine imposed sanctions on three Chinese companies on Friday, claiming they were involved in the production of advanced Iskander missiles. The sanctions list, which also includes Russian companies, names Beijing Aviation & Aerospace Xianghui Technology, Rui Jin Machinery and Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Xining, all registered in China. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on X: “Today, we have expanded our Ukrainian sanctions against nearly a hundred more entities – natural and legal persons – most of whom are involved in the production of such missiles – Iskanders – like those…
Day: April 18, 2025
Chinese rights lawyer Lu Siwei sentenced to 11 months in prison
Prominent Chinese rights lawyer Lu Siwei, who was arrested and deported from Laos in 2023, was sentenced behind closed doors in China to 11 months in prison on Friday, his wife told Radio Free Asia. Lu, 52, who was accused of illegal border crossing, plans to appeal the sentence by the Chenghua District Court in Chengdu, southwestern Sichuan province, said his wife Zhang Chunxiao, who lives in the United States. The court also fined him 10,000 yuan ($1,370). Despite holding a U.S. visa and Chinese passport, Lu was arrested in…
Cambodia’s controversial canal project gets boost on Xi visit
A pet project of Cambodia’s ruling Hun clan to build a canal linking the capital with the Gulf of Thailand got a boost as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rounded off a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia on Friday. The Cambodian government reported the signing Thursday of a public-private partnership contract with China worth $1.15 billion to fund Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal project. The ambitious project was launched last year but work stopped soon after groundbreaking amid questions over funding for the 151 kilometer (94 mile)-long canal that would link a…
Americans dislike China slightly less, survey finds
WASHINGTON — Americans continue to have an unfavorable opinion of China, but for the first time in five years, their attitudes have softened somewhat, with a decline in the share of those who view it as an enemy of the United States, a survey by Washington-based Pew Research Center showed. The survey, conducted amid escalating U.S.-China trade tensions, found more than half of all Americans say the tariff hikes will be more bad than good for the U.S. and for themselves, while a significant majority (75%) have little or no…
OPINION: RFA Uyghur Service is a light that pierces the darkness of China’s rule
When I was a Uyghur child living in communist China in the 1970s, we had no way of knowing what was happening around the world, within China, or even to our own Uyghur people in our homeland of East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang, China). For colonized people like us, living under a total information blackout and bombarded by communist propaganda 24/7, discovering the truth was not a luxury – it was a yearning, something we sometimes risked our lives for. I remember those days vividly. My father would gather…
China dismisses Zelenskyy’s claim it has supplied weapons to Russia
China’s foreign ministry has dismissed as “groundless” the accusation by Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the country had been supplying weapons to Russia. The comments, made at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday, came a day after the Ukrainian president said China was supplying weapons to Russia, including gunpowder and artillery, and that Chinese representatives were involved in weapons production on Russian territory. In response, the ministry’s spokesperson, Lin Jian, said China had never made lethal weapons available to any party in the Ukraine crisis. “China’s position on the Ukrainian…
Trump administration set to impose steep fees on Chinese ships
Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world The Trump administration will begin imposing fees on Chinese-built ships docking in US ports as it tries to spur US shipbuilding, in a move likely to escalate trade tensions between Washington and Beijing. The US presented plans in a filing late on Thursday to phase in steep charges on Chinese-owned or built ships carrying cargo to US ports over several years. The fees are part of an effort…
ASEAN chair talks to Myanmar’s exiled government officials for the first time
Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese. Myanmar’s exiled civilian government held a meeting with the chair of the regional bloc ASEAN for the first time, amid mounting international pressure over the bloc’s engagement with the war-torn country’s military regime. The virtual talks between delegates from the National Unity Government, or NUG, and Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian Prime Minister who also serves as the bloc’s chair, focused on Myanmar’s worsening humanitarian crisis, compounded by ongoing civil conflict as well as a recent devastating earthquake, according to the NUG. “What…
US forges ahead with plans for steep port fees on China-built vessels
The Trump administration is forging ahead with plans to charge steep fees on Chinese-built ships for stopping at US ports in an effort to revive its shipbuilding industry, but scaled back the penalties after warnings about the impact on consumers. The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) significantly watered down original plans from February, under which vessels built in China would be charged $3.5m (£2.6m) each time they docked at a US port. The US and China are locked in a trade war. Those proposals prompted a backlash from…
US says Chinese company is helping Houthis target American warships
A Chinese satellite company linked to the country’s military is supplying Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen with imagery to target US warships and international vessels in the Red Sea, according to American officials. Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly warned Beijing that Chang Guang Satellite Technology, a commercial group with ties to the People’s Liberation Army, is providing the Houthis with the intelligence, according to the US officials. “The United States has raised our concerns privately numerous times to the Chinese government on Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co Ltd’s role in…